KIEV, Ukraine — "A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladi­mir Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home.

Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”

Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Republican colleagues last year, in remarks caught on a recording and obtained by The Washington Post: "There's two people I think Putin pays: [Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump."

Rohrabacher, a California Republican, is perhaps Putin's most outspoken defender on Capitol Hill.

What happened next: Some lawmakers laughed, McCarthy added "Swear to God," and House Speaker Paul Ryan cut the conversation short and told the people in the room, "No leaks, alright? This is how we know we're a real family here."

McCarthy responds: McCarthy told an MSNBC producer Wednesday he had been making "a bad attempt at a joke."

Why the accusation: Both Ryan and McCarthy had just left a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who detailed the Kremlin strategy of undermining European democracy by financing populist politicians.

The caveat, from The Washington Post: "It is difficult to tell from the recording the extent to which the remarks were meant to be taken literally."

I used to think that at the reason Trump was so enamored with Putin was because 1) he wanted to do business in a big way in Russia; 2) he wanted to play with the big dogs as per his inflated view of himself and his successes; 3) Putin had damaging dirt on Trump which he blackmailed him with.

Look at all these contacts between Trump and Russians.This is so troubling, to make a gross understatement.

Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.

The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between advisers of Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak and Trump, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.

Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.

In January, the Trump White House initially denied any contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. The White House and advisers to the campaign have since confirmed four meetings between Kislyak and Trump advisers during that time.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Republican colleagues last year, in remarks caught on a recording and obtained by The Washington Post: "There's two people I think Putin pays: [Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump."

Rohrabacher, a California Republican, is perhaps Putin's most outspoken defender on Capitol Hill.

What happened next: Some lawmakers laughed, McCarthy added "Swear to God," and House Speaker Paul Ryan cut the conversation short and told the people in the room, "No leaks, alright? This is how we know we're a real family here."

McCarthy responds: McCarthy told an MSNBC producer Wednesday he had been making "a bad attempt at a joke."

Why the accusation: Both Ryan and McCarthy had just left a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who detailed the Kremlin strategy of undermining European democracy by financing populist politicians.

The caveat, from The Washington Post: "It is difficult to tell from the recording the extent to which the remarks were meant to be taken literally."

Read the transcript link below:

Certainly at best it was a bad joke however Ryan's remark cutting the conversation short and calling on everyone to not leak put a different slant on it. At first McCarthy denied saying it. Then he was told there was a sound recording of it and he had to admit it was true.

There are so many tangible items to lay out and investigate that it is hardly a make or break revelation. It only adds a sidelight.

"Pangs of fear and frustration are rippling through the Republican donor and operative classes as Donald Trump’s self-inflicted wounds threaten to fully derail the GOP legislative agenda and tarnish the party’s brand headed into the midterms.

"At a Miami donor retreat and at a high-powered Washington dinner, on Capitol Hill and at political firms across the country, Republican donors and operatives this week watched the barrage of bad headlines about Trump with a mixture of awe, angst and anger, worrying about the political implications for their Republican majorities—and about the legal implications for the president."